Posted by Christian De Angelis on September 23, 2004:

Shawn, Hi. I wasn't sure that my e-mail got thru to you after I got an error message and I wanted to be sure you got this, so I hope you don't mind me posting it on the website. I knew Jeri from the year that we both attended the West Point Prep School at Ft. Monmouth, NJ. I was shocked to see her name on the list of deceased classmates on the West Point website, which I decided to check after the Iraq War started to drag on. I'm sure it must be a painful for you and your family to lose Jeri, but after seeing your request for information from Jeri's friends I thought that I might share a little about her to bring a smile to your face. Jeri was in Company B and I was in Company A at the Prep School. Partly because we were in different companies, I didn't know Jeri as well as many of the other cadet candidates, but she always caught my attention as a smart, pretty, and very likeable person. However, Jeri also caught the eye of a few more people, including my first roommate at USMAPS, Brian Delaney. Brian and I were accepted to USMAPS from the Regular Army. I came from satellite communications training at Fort Gordon, GA, and Brian came from a different regular army unit that was stationed in Korea. It was fairly common at the time to bunk the Regular Army cadet candidates together and to put the cadet candidates coming straight from high school together in two-person rooms. Jeri, as I remember, had just finished high school. In any case, it took only a few weeks before Brian and Jeri had developed a mutual attraction for each other, and it was not long after that Staff Sargeant Gustafson, the Company A non-commissioned officer, decided to make one of his evening checks to be sure that we were doing our homework and not up to any shenanigans. Of course, Brian and Jeri had blissfully disappeared into Jeri's room to work on a special assignment of their own. Unfortunately, Sargeant Gustafson took seriously USMAPS' non-fraternization policy and did not appreciate it when he found the two of them in a compromising position. I think both Jeri and Brian felt pretty embarrassed, but Brian had been unsure whether USMAPS was a good place for him. I think he missed the Regular Army routine of patrolling in South Korea. Jeri, however, appreciated the value of the education she was getting at USMAPS. I think that's why while both of them got in plenty of trouble for the incident, Jeri decided to stick it out at USMAPS and Brian submitted his resignation. He had a bit more time left on his enlistment and then planned to return home to Levittown, NY. I spent the rest of the 1983-1984 year at USMAPS with Jeri-- we both ran on the cross country team, and I remember admiring how while she was not the fastest runner on the team, she always gave her best effort. I felt like I was in the same position as her, trying to meet the expectations of our demanding coach (and Dean of Academics) Dean Beal. (I remember that I made Jeri and the other cadet candidates crack up with a pretty good imitation of Dean Beal screaming at the cross country team in his classic gravelly voice-- part of an impromptu schtick I did at the Parents Day talent show. "Come on Feder, you can do better than that-- now you're letting Carl Lewis pass you.") I didn't go on to West Point after USMAPS, so I lost touch with Jeri after that. However, maybe you can help fill in a fuzzy spot in my memory. After USMAPS I got my BA degree at George Washington University. To complete my degree, I designed a survey of US and German political scientists' opinions of the Strategic Defense Initiative. (I know, I digress, but bear with me.) To carry out the research I travelled throughout West Germany in the summer of 1987 interviewing German political scientists, and I used a college dormitory in Frankfurt as a base for the research. I was on a student budget so when I heard that I could mail home letters at US postal rates by using the post office on the nearby military base in Frankfurt, I decided to try to send some mail. On my way to the post office, in the PX parking lot, I believe I ran into Jeri. Does this sound right because I am a bit fuzzy, but it strikes me that it was Jeri. In the course of conversation I got the impression that she was no longer in the Army but maybe she was married to someone who still was. I apologize if got this story screwed up -- i.e. you know that Jeri was not in Germany at that time, etc., but I'm pretty sure it was her. I remember thinking to myself, what are the chances that I would run into a member of my 300-person USMAPS class while walking through a parking lot in Germany?!! It really made my day to see an old friend after being away from home for most of the summer and I was happy that I got a chance to see her again. All the best to you and your family. --Chris

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